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Older Than Fire

Older Than Fire

Before there was history, there was story — the flood that drowned the world, the trickster who stole the sun, the god who died and came back changed.Older Than Fire retells the myths and folklore of the world, one culture at a time, the way they were meant to be heard.New episodes weekly.

society & culture documentary

All Episodes

5:49

Older Than Fire — The Twins Who Outwitted the Lords...

Older Than Fire ·

2026/10/07

Long before the Maya built their great stone cities, before Xibalba's lords had ever lost a game, two brothers played ball so loudly in the world above that the dead complained about the noise.

en

4:07

Older Than Fire — The Goddess Who Lived in the Volcano

Older Than Fire ·

2026/10/06

Every time lava rises on the Big Island of Hawaii, there are people who understand exactly whose temper is showing.

en

5:35

Older Than Fire — The God Who Went Fishing for the...

Older Than Fire ·

2026/10/05

Out on the gray water, far past where any fisherman would dare go, a god baits his line with the head of an ox, because the only thing he intends to catch is a serpent large enough to circle the entire world.

en

4:54

Older Than Fire — The Spider Who Bought the World's...

Older Than Fire ·

2026/10/04

In the very beginning, before there were any stories at all to tell, they all belonged to one sky god, and a small, clever spider decided that wasn't fair.

en

5:14

Older Than Fire — The Feathered Serpent's Exile

Older Than Fire ·

2026/10/03

For years the city of Tollan flourished under a god-king who refused to let his people cut out a single human heart in his name.

en

5:49

Older Than Fire — The Twins Who Outwitted the Lords...

Older Than Fire ·

2026/10/02

Long before the Maya built their great stone cities, before Xibalba's lords had ever lost a game, two brothers played ball so loudly in the world above that the dead complained about the noise.

en

5:19

Older Than Fire — The Woman Who Flew to the Moon

Older Than Fire ·

2026/10/01

Every autumn, when the moon is at its fullest, families across China and much of East Asia look up at the sky and remember a woman who swallowed a potion meant for two and floated away from the earth forever.

en

5:23

Older Than Fire — The Archer Who Shot Down Nine Suns

Older Than Fire ·

2026/09/30

Ten suns rose into the sky on the same morning. Crops burned, rivers dried, and the earth cracked open. Only one archer had the skill to bring them down, and he paid for it with his own immortality.

en

5:16

Older Than Fire — The Woman Who Patched the Sky

Older Than Fire ·

2026/09/29

When a quarrel between the gods cracked the pillar holding up heaven, the sky tore open, fire raged across the land and floods rose without end. The one who repaired it was the goddess who had made humanity out of mud.

en

5:55

Older Than Fire — The Fisherman Who Opened the...

Older Than Fire ·

2026/09/28

A fisherman spent three days in a palace beneath the sea. When he came home, his village was gone, his family was long dead, and in his hands he held a box he had promised never to open.

en

6:16

Older Than Fire — The Sun Goddess Who Hid in a Cave

Older Than Fire ·

2026/09/27

When the sun goddess walked into a cave and rolled a stone across the entrance, the light of the entire world went with her, and eight million gods gathered in the dark to work out how to bring it back.

en

7:17

Older Than Fire — The Twin Gods Who Made the World...

Older Than Fire ·

2026/09/23

Izanagi and Izanami create Japan together, until death separates them and a broken promise in the underworld changes everything that follows.

en

6:52

Older Than Fire — The Princess Who Argued With Death

Older Than Fire ·

2026/09/23

Savitri follows Yama, god of death, on foot to reclaim her husband, and wins not through force but through patient, relentless argument.

en

6:38

Older Than Fire — The Queen Who Churned the Ocean of...

Older Than Fire ·

2026/09/23

Gods and demons churn a cosmic ocean together for the nectar of immortality, in an alliance that collapses the moment the prize finally appears.

en

6:17

Older Than Fire — The Stone That Always Rolled Back

Older Than Fire ·

2026/09/23

Sisyphus cheated death twice, and the gods answered with a punishment built specifically to defeat his one weakness: gravity itself.

en

6:50

Older Than Fire — The Wings Made of Wax

Older Than Fire ·

2026/09/23

Daedalus builds wings to escape imprisonment with his son Icarus, whose joy at flight carries him past his father's careful warning.

en

6:08

Older Than Fire — The Box That Was Never Meant to Open

Older Than Fire ·

2026/09/23

Pandora, built by the gods as an instrument of punishment, and the jar she was never supposed to open.

en

6:12

Older Than Fire — The Seeds That Bound Her to Winter

Older Than Fire ·

2026/09/23

Persephone's abduction, Demeter's grief, and the pomegranate seeds that explain why winter exists at all.

en

6:44

Older Than Fire — The Woman Who Went to Find Her Husband

Older Than Fire ·

2026/09/23

Orpheus descends into the underworld to bring back Eurydice, and undoes it all with a single, deeply human moment of doubt.

en

7:34

Older Than Fire — The Brother Torn Into Fourteen Pieces

Older Than Fire ·

2026/09/23

The myth of Osiris, Isis, and Set: a murdered king, a wife who refused to accept it, and the son raised to avenge him.

en

98 results

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